14 Responses to Poll Position: Sexist Garb Edition!

Hmmmmmm. Which is more sexist, God that’s like asking which is the worst picture Rob Liefeld ever drew. I’ll give Psylocke and Elektra points for not doing the boob show like the others and Black Cat points for having a zip so she doesn’t have to do it all the time. But as for the others……..

Aaargh! Quite hard to choose.
I narrowed it down to the 2 heroines who showed the more skin, Phantom Lady and Starfire, and finally choose starfire, cause she doesn’t even has a cape to hide… whatever.

Wait… so we go from an up-front discussion how comics are sexist to a full-on skin show? Aside from that, I wish I could wear any of these outfits. Maybe except Black Canary’s. How does she breathe in that?

To be fair, it should be noted that the ORIGINAL Phantom Lady wasn’t near to nude as the Victor Fox version depicted here, but since DC ran with this version instead of the Quality version, I guess I can’t beef. I voted for Starfire simply because she evidently didn’t read the laundry instructions on the label of her costume, which has been steadily shrinking since the character’s introduction.

@ The Atomic Punk: Through her nose. She has to keep her mouth free for the “Canary Cry” DC gave her when she joined the JLA.

The Atomic Punk:
Wait… so we go from an up-front discussion how comics are sexist to a full-on skin show?

You can blame that on the fact that I had a bad weekended at work and then had a buddy over the house all day yesterday and nearly forgot about the Poll position post. So at 3 am I was starring at my computer trying to come up with a halfway decent ( no pun intended ) topic for the poll.

Skybandit:
To be fair, it should be noted that the ORIGINAL Phantom Lady wasn’t near to nude as the Victor Fox version depicted here, but since DC ran with this version instead of the Quality version, I guess I can’t beef.

Actually, this is a revised version of the Quality Phantom Lady. The Fox version wore a tiny blue two-piece rather than the Quality yellow one-piece. The All-Star Squadron / Freedom Fighters revival of the Quality PL by DC added the plunging neckline.

I’m just gonna go with “almost all of them, considering some of the circumstances”.

I’ll grant Emma Frost an exception, considering that she used to be in the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, where that whole thing is, y’know, sort of whole point (considering how much explicit and exploitative actual, historical Hellfire Clubs were), and she has made it clear that she’s fully aware of the whole thing etc. That said, she has worn some godawful outfits that I cannot see her really wearing (since she does have a sense of style), and the sample presented is not the worst available.

Gotta agree with Skiriki in general. I haven’t read comics for several of these, but Emma was quite at home in the world of sexism. Of course, at her level, costume and conduct become useful. She wouldn’t need to use any psi to get certain men to do her bidding, protect her, fund her . . .
Yeah, Emma’s a good example of how exploitation can equalize through ‘reverse exploitation.’

I’m going Black Canary almost every time, there’s just something I’ve found attractive. Although I’ve seen better pictures where it doesn’t look like she’s spilling out of her top.
Yeah, guess I’m not a teenage boy anymore.

i’m going with Wonder Woman on this one. Her costume’s not as bad as some of the others, but then you get into the rope and bracelets. They’re WW’s most important crime fighting tools, and they’re based on a bondage fetish…
Beyond that, Any of the other characters could be given a redesign, but Diana’s lasso and bracelets are such a core part of the character, they’re probably not going anywhere, even if DC did start a push for more reasonable superheroine designs.

Power girl~ for egregious display of “the twins”!
Granted Everyone up there, except Emma Frost, IS in a swimsuit (the female costume norm) or less. And while Wonder, Cat and Canary could be borderline S/M wear, Power Girl had to cut a hole in her costume to put them on display!